This will finalize my opinion on Bob Bradley...

From ESPN: "Bradley believes they can cause an upset, though, saying: 'We came up against Spain before Euro 2008 and we played a great game. We've been watching them during this tournament and we've been taking note of their style. We know how to stop them and we are very confident.' "

If we lose by more than 2 goals, Bradley should be fired after acting like a cocky dick like that. You might take this comment as nothing special, but if you've listened to this guy talk about soccer over the past year you tend to get sick of him. Lack of coaching is one of the main reasons US soccer has not progressed over the past 15 years imho.

Bryce Harper/Age restrictions in sports

For those of you who don't know Bryce Harper is a 16yo High School student who was recently on the cover of Sports Illustrated and is being labeled as the "chosen one" in regard to his baseball talent. He recently announced that he is going to drop out of High School (he is currently a sophomore) and attain his GED so that he can be eligible for the draft sooner. He has taken a lot of grief from many people saying that he is throwing away his education and is growing up to quickly. What are everyones thoughts on this? To give you a bit of a breakdown of what American sports are requiring now:

MLB:
Must be at least 16yos and have completed High School (or attained its equivalent)
NBA:
Recently instated you must be at least 19yo and have completed HS (or equivalent)
NFL:
(no age restrictions) But must have +3 years after you completed HS (or equivalent). If you are in college and have completed your sophomore year you must complete junior year to be eligible for the draft.

The NFL has arguably the best policy for making kids go to college, and only recently did the NBA put something in place that will make it impossible for most kids to come right out of High School to go into the NBA. But is this the right way?

Look at Soccer leagues in Europe. The only age requirements is that you have to be able to get a work permit which in most European countries thats 14 or 16. You don't need to graduate High School, no need to attend college. This is often cited as the reason that American Soccer players aren't as good because they have to go through the "American" way which is High School, College, and then a Club Team/National Team. By the time they are 22 and coming out of college everyone else in the world has been playing on a club team for years. Should kids in American be able to join up a professional sports team whenever they want? There are obvious pros and cons.

Real Madrid break transfer record and then break again days later

Real Madrid recently re-elected president Florentino Perez. He was the president back in the late 90s/early 00s when they were the power house of the world. He was just re-elected this year and vowed to bring back the "Galacticos" era. Their first bit of business this week: signing Kaka from AC Milan. If you remember Boski blogged about how Kaka turned down a (and what would have been world record transfer fee) 100 million pound bid from Man City in the Dec. transfer window. He stated he did not want to leave Milan. Well it turns out he would leave the club, for less money, as long as it was a better club. He accepted a 56 million pound bid this week. I guess half of the money, but a much better club was all that he was looking for. Well they weren't finished there. They decided to sign, which has been rumored about for the last 1 1/2 years, Ronaldo from Man Utd. For the fee of 80 million pounds. So in one week they've spent a combined total of about $228,000,000 (in dollars). On two players!!!! Can you buy success? Chelsea proved it is possible back a few years ago, but after the initial success it quickly turned sour. Will this be Real's year to come back?